Okaloosa County maintains approximately 140 miles of dirt roads throughout both District 1 and District 3 North.
- According to Commissioner Nathan Boyles, these cost nearly three times as much to maintain as a paved road, not to mention increased vehicle maintenance costs for citizens and the environmental damage caused to County creeks and rivers.
Okaloosa County has been working towards capping all of these roads with lime-rock to stabilize the roads and provide a safer, better, more stable road surface, in addition to minimizing sediment runoff into local creeks and rivers.
Back in February 2, 2020, the Half-Cent Surtax Advisory Committee approved a recommendation of $2 million per year and the Board of County Commissioners approved the spending on February 16, 2021.
- Mohawk Valley Materials, Inc. was awarded the first 31 miles of dirt roads to cover with lime-rock and completed the job in just 72 days.
- 25 of those improvements have already been chip sealed.
As part of the next set of dirt roads, Okaloosa County is set to spend $1,348,885.60 to provide material, labor, and equipment to stabilize nearly 14.5 miles by placing 152,340 square yards of lime-rock material.
According to Public Works Director Jason Autrey, once the lime-rock has been placed for a period of time for observation, typically 6 months, staff will plan to have the roads chip sealed as the surface cap.
“We have been able to expand our resources because of the Half-Cent Sales Surtax,” said Autrey. “For the past five years, we had been able to do about 30 to 40 miles where we converted them from red clay to lime-rock. This past six months, with 72 days of contract time, we got 31 miles of dirt roads improve with lime-rock.”
“I want to just thanks to County staff for continuing to push this and to my fellow Commissioners for continuing to support this,” said Commissioner Nathan Boyles. “It is doing what we need it to do and I can assure you, we’re seeing it in my district.”
According to Commissioner Boyles, of all of the Sutrax Infrastructure Projects, the “dirt to paved” project is completely unique in the fact that it is the sole project, to date, that is reducing future costs while making an immediate improvement for residents in those areas.
“We did the math and it’s just less expensive to maintain a paved road than it is to maintain a dirt road,” he said. “It has an amortization where it actually pays for itself, which is unique. Over the next 20 or 30 years, the county will get paid back every penny we’re spending on these roads through reduce maintenance costs.”
